2. North Germanic Languages

The North Germanic tribes settled on the southern coast of Scandinavia and in Northern Denmark (since the 4^th c. A.D.). They lived relatively isolated and showed little dialectal variation at that time.

There existed one common language – Old Norse/Old Scandinavian. It had the following characteristics:

• It used the original Germanic Alphabet called the Runes/the Runic Alphabet. It appeared in the 3^rd – 4^th c. A.D. It has come down to us in runic inscriptions – separate words written/carved on objects made of wood, stone, metal (more about it in Lecture 7).

• It was spoken by all North Germanic tribes.

In the 9^th – 10^th c. A.D. the Scandinavians started their voyages to America and islands in the Atlantic Ocean (Leif Ericson, a Scandinavia raider, was the first to land on the American Continent). In addition to this overpopulation in the fjord areas caused the migration of the people to inner Scandinavia. This provoked the beginning of the linguistic differentiation. In Scandinavia the linguistic division corresponded to the political division: there were 3 kingdoms (Sweden, Denmark and Norway) that were constantly fighting for dominance and they had 3 respective languages (earliest records in these languages date back to the 13^th c.):

• Old Danish – later it developed into Danish (now the national language of Denmark);

• Old Swedish - later it developed into Swedish (now the national language of Sweden and a part of Finland);

• Old Norwegian – was the last to develop, later transformed into Norwegian (now the national language of Norway).

In the 8^th c. A.D. sea-rovers and merchants founded numerous colonies on the islands in the North Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean (the Shetland Islands, the Orkneys, the Faroe Islands) and reached even Iceland and Greenland. Thus two more North Germanic languages appeared:

• Faroese (In the Faroe Islands the writing was done in Danish for centuries. The first written records in Faroese appeared only in the 18^th c.);

• Icelandic (9th c. A.D.)

The Icelandic Language was THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL NORTH GERMANIC LANGUAGES because:

1. The isolation of Iceland caused the preservation of archaic vocabulary and grammatical system.

2. The preservation of archaic vocabulary and grammatical system makes this language very close to Old Norse and helps to reconstruct this ancient common Germanic language.

3. Icelandic has the largest body of written texts (12^th – 13^th c.), e.g.:

– “The Elder Edda” (12^th c.) – a collection of heroic songs;

• “The Younger Edda” (13^th c.) – a text-book forpoets;

• Old Icelandic Sagas.

3. West Germanic Languages

The West Germanic tribes lived between the Oder and the Elbe and they never left the mainland. They were:

• the Franconians (Low, Middle and High Franconians) – settled the lower basin of the Rhine and with time began to speak the language of the Romanised Celts, apart from Low Franconians who spoke Old Low Franconian that later developed into  Dutch;

• the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes and the Frisians – settled the coastal territories of the Netherlands, Germany, the south of Denmark and the British Isles. The languages they spoke were:

• Old English – later developed into  English (national language – 16^th c.; first written records – 7^th c.);

– Old Saxon – later developed into a territorial dialect in Germany;

• Old Frisian – later developed into  Frisian

• High Germans – settled the southern mountainous areas of Germany and spoke Old High German that later developed into two distinctive languages:

 German:

• is known for great dialectal diversity;

• first written records – 8^th – 9^th c.;

• 12^th c. – literary form of the language appears.

 Yiddish (see classification of the Germanic Languages, Lecture 1.)

H/w:

1. Ex. 2, 6; p. 48, 49 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies) (see also lectures on the history on the British Isles (The British Cultural Studies)).